Fridge problem solved

[Don in E Texas]

The fridge in our 1987 TT finally gave up this summer.

What I did was purchase an all-electric fridge at Lowe's for about $210.00, and install an inverter ($125.00) in my truck to power it while on the road. Now I have a frost-free unit - only takes a couple of hours to be cold - no more frozen lettuce - ice cream is solid - my beer is chilled properly (most important).

This might not help out those that boon-dock, I don't in the trailer (too small holding tanks, no way to run a/c, etc etc.) --- I use the bus conversion if I'm going to boon-dock (100 gallon tanks, 8KW diesel gen, etc).

Fridge will run a long time on the truck battery system (4 batteries) with engine off - meaning I can "camp" at Wal*Mart overnight w/o any problem.

Just my $.02

don

[SilverRanger]

Don,

Interesting solution. Just curious, how big is your reefer, and how many watts is your inverter?

Thanks.

[davidz71]

Don, just curious, what kind of mileage are you getting out of your tractor while towing your trailer?

[Don in E Texas]

Fridge is 4 CF --- next size larger and I'd have to "chop" the nice cabinet above the fridge space opening. The boss (wife) is happy with the fridge- - capacity not a problem. The one in the bus is 12 cf.

I tested fuel milage from our home in Texas to NY State last year --- avg 12 mpg. Pulling trailer does not seem to make any difference. Bus gets 5.5 mpg (groan).

Worst fuel milage was pulling mountains out West, but made up for it going down the back side. Truck does the mountains at posted speed limits. Need to take some heart pills when I pull in to fill up -- two 100 gallon tanks -- nice thing is I can travel a LOT before I need fuel.

Inverter is 1,250 watt. Purchased off internet site "inverters r us" or something like that. I don't know how much wattage the fridge takes, but the inverter has no problem with it plus running the trailers converter and TV/satellite stuff.

Just returned from a Heavy Duty Truck rally in KS --- had 38 trucks and 72 folks. Most are full timers pulling larger 5th wheel trailers. Guess I have over 20,000 miles pulling our trailer - no sway bars or equalizer bars -- only one flat tire this past summer (new tires - that was a bummer) the only problem towing with the truck.

Don